Arundines Cami

Abstract

Arundines Cami ('The Reeds of the Cam') is a collection of over 200 English rhymes, songs, poems, and hymns translated into Latin (and occasionally Greek) by a group of early Victorian Cambridge alumni. It was compiled and edited by Henry Drury (1812–1863), a graduate of Gonville and Caius College. A promising classical scholar, Drury left Cambridge in 1839 to embark on a career in the church, and became curate of Alderley, Gloucestershire. The following year, Drury and some friends conceived this anthology which includes the full text of selected English poems by authors including Tennyson, Shakespeare, Byron, Gray, Burns and Milton, accompanied by Latin translations. Drury dedicated the book, first published in 1841, to his alma mater. A total of six editions were published, the first five during Drury's lifetime, and the last in 1865, edited by H. J. Hodgson.